Theme answers:
- 16A: Opening with a thud? (BAD DEBUT).
- 19A: Staple in a Hollywood first-aid kit? (STAR GAUZE).
- 26A: Compulsion to set up camp? (TENT DURESS).
- 34A: Hoss and Little Joe's off-color jokes? (PONDEROSA RAUNCH).
- 43A: Civil unrest in Brest? (FRENCH FURY).
- 50A: Restrain a legendary soul seller? (HOLD FAUST).
- 58A: Classy accommodations at the Spider Ritz? (WEB SUITE).
- 47D: "Have a nice day" response, and a literal hint to this puzzle's theme (YOU TOO).
For an add-a-letter theme, this one seems pretty average to me. TENT DURESS and FRENCH FURY are pretty awesome entries, but the others don't do much for me. I did figure out the theme early and then use it to figure out the other theme answers with few crosses, so that was pretty fun.Bullets:
- 1A: Bucolic (PASTORAL). "Bucolic" sounds too much like "bubonic" to me, so I can never remember at first that it means something pleasant.
- 13A: Wood preservative (CREOSOTE). I didn't realize it was a preservative. I just thought it was something that ruined your chimney.
- 25A: Source of Ulee's gold (BEES). Someone mentioned this recently (was it just yesterday??), so here ya go:
- 49A: Gulf of Finland city (ESPOO). I don't know what to say about this, I just wanted to highlight it.
- 4D: "The Fox and the Hound" fox (TOD). I don't know what this means.
- 46D: House Judiciary Committee chair during the Nixon impeachment hearings (RODINO). I know a lot of names associated with the whole Watergate thing, but RODINO isn't one of them.
- 56D: Rancher's concern (HERD). I tried "head" first.
- 61D: Trendy boot brand (UGG). Where I live, 9-year-olds need to have them. Ugh.
- It's the sixth Jewish month, falling between Shevat and Nisan.
- Purim takes place in ADAR.
- Purim is also sometimes known as the Feast of Esther.
- The Feast of Esther follows the Fast of Esther, known in Hebrew as Ta'anit Esther.
Other crosswordese in the puzzle that we've already covered:
- 29A: She played Emma in "The Avengers" (UMA).
- 40A: Lake near Niagara Falls (ERIE).
- 9D: Old lab heaters (ETNAS).
- 10D: Isaac's eldest (ESAU).
- 23D: Raison d'__ (ÊTRE).
- 51D: European capital (OSLO).
Everything Else — 14A: Plays the class clown (CUTS UP); 17A: Showy (ORNATE); 18A: Overseas fem. title (SRA.); 21A: Clueless (AT SEA); 32A: Mideast language (IRANI); 33A: Support group? (BRAS); 41A: Atlanta campus (EMORY); 42A: Jets coach Ryan (REX); 48A: Fizzled out (DIED); 55A: Word with a head slap (DUH); 57A: Six-Day War country (ISRAEL); 62A: Insurer of Tina Turner's legs (LLOYD'S); 63A: One transferring property rights, in law (ASSIGNOR); 64A: Plenty (TONS); 65A: As terrific as they say (THAT GOOD); 1D: Banned pollutants (PCB'S); 2D: Biblical resting place (ARARAT); 3D: Composed (SEDATE); 5D: Suffix with fruct- (OSE); 6D: Hold up (ROB); 7D: "Do you bite your thumb __, sir?": "Romeo and Juliet" (AT US); 8D: Riga resident (LETT); 11D: Eponymous skater Alois __ (LUTZ); 12D: WWI German vice-admiral (SPEE); 14D: Centers (CORES); 15D: Prods (URGES); 20D: Justice Fortas (ABE); 22D: Derisive (SNIDE); 24D: Month before Nisan (ADAR); 27D: Card game warning (UNO); 28D: Out of bed (RISEN); 29D: Still-life subject (URN); 30D: Bud (MAC); 31D: Tip for a smoker? (ASH); 33D: Corner the market on (BUY UP); 34D: In accordance with (PER); 35D: It may be found in a deposit (ORE); 36D: Outlaw (NIX); 37D: Onetime Jeep mfr. (AMC); 38D: Architect Mies van der __ (ROHE); 39D: Pound sounds (ARFS); 43D: Fluted, in a way (FIFED); 44D: Old Spanish coins (REALS); 45D: Web address ender (EDU); 48D: Critical moments to gear up for (D-DAYS); 50D: Maximum degree (HILT); 52D: Hubbard of Scientology (L. RON); 53D: Team acronym (SWAT); 54D: John with Emmys and a journalism award (TESH); 59D: Jamboree gp. (BSA); 60D: Be in session (SIT).
Another Naddor treat… wow!
ReplyDeleteAlthough Dan DIED (rest in peace, dear friend), he still can get us all laughing with his wonderful puns… and that’s a good thing for a Friday puzzle.
Seven nice theme words in a 15x15 is pretty darn good!
The only thing that caused me a false start was putting in BETHEL for a “Biblical resting place”. Other than that, I plopped-in all the other words with no problem. For me, solving a Friday puzzle in less than 15 minutes is quite good.
Oh yeah, and I got double faked-out by 51D “European capital”, thinking it was one of those clever clues for money. DUH!
There was quite a bit of crosswordese in this puzzle, but for a dense theme puzzle I guess that’s to be expected.
Overall, I’d say this was not one of Dan’s better plays.
Some Mies van der ROHE trash!
I attended the Illinois Institute of Technology and so I came to unappreciate his bad architecture, especially in a city famed for such marvelous works such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan. What’s your opinion?
“Have a nice day” y’all.
@John - I'm not wild about Mies van der ROHE much, either. Not homey by a long shot. I'd have to pile up my books and magazines to cover the windows and make me a fortress, anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I see CREOSOTE I think of a certain yucky Monte Python scene.
Biblical Resting place - The Bosom of Abraham, but it didn't fit.
ESPOO is the 2nd largest city in Finland, so we oughta learn it.
Had to Google for TOD, LUTZ, ESPOO, UGG, which I never heard of and RODINO, which I forgot.
LETT is from German, Leute, people.
Amazing how many words for a people just mean "people."
TESH fell in. I was waiting for something more ponderous, like Ford or Amos.
Explain bud= MAC?
May Naddor rest his soul in the bosom of Abraham.
I thought this one would fall faster then it did but it took me a while to get the theme even though I know its add a letter Friday.
ReplyDeleteWho has a problem with ESPOO/RODINO as a crossing? I first tried an I there, my mistake of the day.
Hey MAC, what's up?
Espoo is the second largest city in Finland. I learned that playing ultimate frisbee in western Australia.
ReplyDeleteBUY UP is perfectly valid, and BUYUP looks perfectly ugly. I had trouble in the NE, because I couldn't think of SPEE and I had other stuff for other stuff.
IRANI is a language? Really?
@SethG - Espoo may be the second largest city in Finland, but more importantly it's what the two young, essentially spanish speaking, children say when pointing (Es Poo) my dog's droppings in our common back yard, left there after our games of penultimate frisbee.
ReplyDeleteESPOO. I like this word, sounds like a negative comment from Inspector Clouseau.
ReplyDeletePuzzle was tough, didn't Know RODINO so guessed RIDINO (as I hadn't learned my new favorite word yet) and thus earned my DNF.
@SethG - Yes, IRANI is a language. It's actually a double transliteration of Farsi, the intermediate transliteration being "I don't know what language Iranis speak, but at least I know it's not arabic"
ReplyDeleteI thought this was another fun Naddor puzzle. Had some definite missteps with AHIS first for EELS, ACTS UP instead of CUTS UP, AWAKE instead of RISEN and FARSI before IRANI. I also had DAMN GOOD for THAT GOOD. It's a good thing I solve in pencil. I enjoyed the add a U puns. Thought FRENCH FURY was apropos given the demonstrations that have been going on over the change of retirement age in France. I have three pairs of UGGS and I live in Southern CA. They are both comfortable and warm. During our "cold " winters I switch from flip flops to UGGS.
ReplyDelete@JNH Less is more. Mies was a minimalist
Espoo is the second largest city in Finland, pretty awesome place right on the Gulf of Finland, headquarters of Nokia are there.
ReplyDeleteTypical, enjoyable Dan Naddor offering. Got WEBSUITE as the first theme answer and figured out the add-a-U gimmick. Finished without help but had one error -- spelled CREOSOTE as CREaSOTE and thus had TaD for the fox. ESPOO looks funny so I was prepared to find out it was wrong, but no.
ReplyDeleteI wondered what SWAT stands for:..Special Weapons And Tactics.
Now back to the NYT puzzle which I started earlier but remains largely blank. Maybe a fresh look will help.
Raise your hand if you wanted to squeeze Diana (as in Rigg) into the 3 squares meant for UMA. Had to get UMA all from crosses. Maybe I should NetFlick this movie.
ReplyDeleteCreosote is the blalck stuff used to cover wooden utility poles.
I think Anonymous 9:29 has the right idea... IRANI is what you say when you can't remember that it's called Farsi.
Had writeovers at SEDATE/SErenE and REX/Rob. Can't tell those Ryan twins apart.
@PG inspired me to finally look up the Hebrew calendar and add it to my crosswordese list. Turns out that the Wiki entry puts ADAR as the 12th month. The other month I've seen in xwords is Elul.
Very fine puzzle. (Of course, my definition of a good puzzle is one with a minimum of pop culture.)
Think I'll try to track down TOD of "The Fox and the Hound"
That was easy. THe red fox in Disney's "The Fox and the Hound" was named TOD. (The hound was named Copper.)
ReplyDeleteI can't decide which language is sillier: on the one hand you have the Finns, who name their second-largest city ESPOO, and you have the Icelanders, who name their their volcano Eyafjallajökull. Tough call.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I knew about creosote before this puzzle was that there's a creosote bush somewhere that's supposedly the oldest living thing in the world...20,000 years or so.
Gotta love "Support group" for BRAS.
I've known several Latvian-Americans without being aware that I should refer to them as Letts.
And I definitely didn't know that Tina Turner's legs were insured with Lloyd's of London.
@JNH: For me, solving a Friday at all is THAT GOOD. Which I did today, even if it was quite a slog, so cool!
ReplyDeleteAlso @JNH: That van der Rohe house doesn't do it for me either; but then there's the Toronto-Dominion Centre. It's the two taller black buildings, and at least the shorter one on the left (not sure about the one on the right).
Those buildings are cool, when you walk through that plaza. (When the first two were built in the 60s, they towered above the rest of the city the way the WTC used to do in New York. Up until then, I believe, the tallest building in Toronto was the Royal York Hotel -- that 1920s-vintage pile on the right with the green copper roof.) More pictures here.
Liked PONDEROSA RAUNCH, FRENCH FURY, HOLD FAUST; not so hot on the other theme answers. But had D'OH for DUH, which slowed down the YOU TOO reveal a bit.
Had to Google UMA, ESPOO, LUTZ, ADAR, RODINO (Sam Ervin would have been a gimme).
I was so proud of myself that "Do you bit your thumb AT ME, sir?" was a gimme :-/ DUH!
I thought "Insurer of Tina Turner's legs" was pulling ours, until the answer came in through crosses :-) "LLOYD'S?" I thought. "Must be for real. Who knew?"
As for IRANI, I agree with everyone else. Wikipedia tells me there's an Iranian family of languages. I can't find IRANI in the tree. But then, I can't find Farsi either. There's a Fars, with 100K speakers, hanging off of Southwestern at the top of the trunk; that can't be the majority language of Iran! What's up with that? Hmmm, follow Southwestern up further and you get to a big, fat "Western (Iran)" limb; maybe that's Farsi, by a better English name than IRANI (cue a more famous Romeo & Juliet quote :-)).
An oddity: down in the lower-right of that Iranian family tree (a little above the legend) is an extinct language, Soghdian, with three dialects: Christian, Buddhist, and Manichaean. I find it interesting that different religious groups would interact so little that they'd diverge into their own dialects. Even scarier, a Christian sect seems to have done so as well -- Manichaeism was one of the early Christian heresies that the Church ruthlessly suppressed. (Arianism was another; not to be confused with (real) Aryans, who are, basically, speakers of Indo-Iranian languages (a subfamily of Indo-European), including the Iranian family referred to above; or with the Nazis' bull@!#* pseudo-Aryans.)
Forgot to mention yesterday: I know a lot of folks don't think much of the USA Today puzzle, but yesterday's had a thing I've never seen before: a pair of answers that obey the same symmetry as the grid. Nice!
The other Finnish city I know from ultimate is Sipoo. Spanish jokers, have fun.
ReplyDeleteIt turns out that there are several different CREOSOTEs. First, there's the desert bush.
ReplyDeleteThen there's "wood creosote", which is made either from the bush's resin, or using some process involving beech wood. It's been used medicinally, but is mostly superceded now.
Next is "coal tar creosote", which is a petrochemical; it's the black stuff used to preserve telephone poles, railroad ties, and the like.
Finally, there's the gunk that accumulates in chimneys, which is "similar in composition" to one of the previous two, but Wikipedia doesn't say which.
Thanks to Dan (RIP), Rich, and y'all, for prodding me to look up something I've wondered about for a long time :-)
Hand up for Diana!
ReplyDeleteMy WOTDs were ETNA (though knew it in the usual context, never heard of it as alternate to Bunsen Burner - but I can see the resemblance), ESPOO, and ADAR.
Didn't know the eponymous LUTZ, though have suffered enough Winter Olympics broadcasts to know the term, nor SPEE (and probably will promptly forget him).
Got STARGAUZE quickly, but had TENTstRESS for too long, obscuring the theme until the revealer YOUTOO, which helped quickly fix it and fill the other themes, or parts that had, like PONDERSO_ _ _ _ _ _, gone begging. Like others, thought FRENCHFURY had the most zip.
I too wanted farsi and just couldn't believe IRANI as it developed from crosses.
Rep. Pete RODINO was in my brain, but way in the back. Kept picturing those news photos of Howard Baker, and Sam Ervin, forgetting they were Sens., not Reps.
(luttly: descriptive of the Lutz-ful Rigan skaters routine?)
One of the first ones I filled in was RODINO, because I live in what was Peter Rodino's district here in New Jersey. He was quite a local hero at the time.
ReplyDeleteActually first saw LETT in a translation of George Simenon's Maigret and the Enigmatic LETT [Pietr-le-Letton]. Still my favoirte detective writer.
ReplyDelete@Eric - the CREOSOTE I know (besides the disgusting afore-mentioned Mr. C) is the gunk you put on posts before you sink them in the soil.
Tina Turner - the "other" puzzle has the Ikettes, today.
@David - thanx. Guess it's a guy thing.
So, use a doggy scoop, and don't step in the Spanish ESPOO! Maybe that will help us remember the place.
I was sure Diana had two rs in her last name! Nice puzzle. I got the theme with Ponderosa raunch, but left the bad debut to the end. Didn't like the clues for bras very much, but THAT GOOD is great.
ReplyDeleteThought I knew my European geography, but Espoo does not sound familiar at all. Have to go look it up.
abless: what comes after achoo.